First day of school
Yesterday I started a couple of classes at the local university. Just for fun, to flake some rust from the intellectual hinges, maybe to decide if I want to gear up to go back to school in a more serious way. It’s been five years since I earned my BA in anthropology, environmental studies, and education, and the focus on those subjects meant the neglect of other natural proclivities and budding interests. So I signed up for Early American Art & Architecture, and also for The English Novel. And bright and early yesterday morning, I pedaled my bicycle (a well-used commuter bike we acquired from our neighbor, not Domitilla, who is too pretty to be trusted to the bike thieving environs of the university) into downtown and found the art building in time for my eight o’ clock class.
I’d forgotten how much delight academic settings afford me. The first day of school. . . it’s heady, like walking the edge of something unknown and thrilling. Between classes I walked the city with a spring in my step and an eye to the lively details — the spire of First Presbyterian Church thrusting over the rooftops, the mustard leaves falling from the ash trees, the autumn roses blooming in the Park Block gardens, a gay flock of preschoolers harnessed together for a field trip to the library. (I may also have sprung into Knit/Purl and gotten a little lively near the cash register. They had the shade of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed DK I’ve been questing after.)
Hours later, my backpack stuffed to the gills with heavy new books and supplies, I cycled home again to try to read the lengthy introduction to the annotated Lolita while knitting my Baby Surprise. I wish for the baby it’s to warm that he may love learning. From his parents he’ll get smarts and inventiveness. I hope he’ll also be blessed with a fire of inquisitive spirit. If I could weave fibers into his sweater to tickle his curiosity, that’s what I’d do.
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 11:31 am
Your writing is just so exquisite. I truly love reading your posts. Good luck with school. I’d like to go back soon, myself. For now, I am taking cooking classes, here and there.
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 11:37 am
interesting.. the idea of going back to school totally does not appeal to me 🙂 i’d like to stay away from school forever if i could!
sounds like you’re enjoying it though!
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 11:57 am
As a former English Major, I love the sound of a class called The English Novel. I loved my lit classes but left my university rather underwhelmed by the breadth of our syllabi. I know I’m not as well-read as I should be. While I don’t think I’ll ever go back for any sort of degree program, I would love to keep my “intellectual hinges” oiled as well. Let me know how it goes!
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Oh, you just made me want to go back to school with you! I’d take classes for the rest of my life if I could. I hope you enjoy your choices (which sound fabulous) and let us know how they go.
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with your feelings about school. There is nothing better than that feeling of being on campus, heading towards a class in a subject you love. I just started a fashion class at Pratt last night, and was experiencing the same thrill. Can’t we just go to school forever? I never want to stop learning!
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
How “early” are we talking with your Early American Art & Architecture class? My degree was in art history, and American Art was one of my favorites. Would love to hear what you’ll be studying and how you like it. 🙂 Enjoy your classes!
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
I feel the way you do about the first day of school. Everything is crisp and clear in your mind…
And since you’re going back because you want to, not because you have to, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Amen to the lifelong learning! I’m amazed at what-all I have learned in half a century of living, and I have great hopes for the second half of my life.
Nabokov? Literature? Seriously? Must be the same folks who think that “Ulysses” is the greatest novel in the English language. Take two Dorothy Sayers and call me in the morning, LOL!
All my harrumphing aside, I hope you thoroughly enjoy your classes. Me? I’m jonesing after a certain fiber program in North TX that one has to *jury* into, or so I’ve heard. But that will have to wait until my youngest is out of the nest, and only then if I can take classes at night so I can work during the day and continue to keep a roof over my head.
I do believe that you’ve put me in the mood to pick up Diane Ackerman’s “A Natural History of the Senses” and reread it. Thank you!
Posted: September 27th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
lucky lady. i’ve actually thought about taking a few classes, now that i’m unemployed (giggle), but life is just to crazy right now. maybe when things calm down (if they ever do!)
lord knows what i’d take.
Posted: September 28th, 2006 at 8:58 am
Ooooh, back to school sounds fantastic – the new notebooks, the learning and the challenge, I may just have to sign myself up for a class at NYU!
Posted: September 29th, 2006 at 3:58 am
thanks for your advice about Liam & the sun also rises. He’s 14, and i’m trying to expand his reading horizons, because he tends to stick with war/sci fi stuff. Right now he’s listening to Lord of the Flies, and i think he actually likes it. It’s weird, but he likes it. and yes, i never check out abridged versions of book tapes, i want the whole bloody book!
Posted: September 30th, 2006 at 3:16 am
Have fun! Sounds like you already are.
Posted: October 28th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I love the first day of school too. I think it’s a lovely wish to hope that a child has a love of learning. I think that makes the entire school experience different than going because you have too. I think even after I’m done with my BA I’ll always want to take classes in some way.